Field of the Art
The present invention relates to system and methods for managing the information using a network-connected electronic device. More specifically it relates to managing the shared information using context based network communication in mobile electronic devices.
Discussion of the State of the Art
Mobile electronic devices, for example, smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), music players, tablets and smartwatches are becoming more sophisticated and technologically advanced with each passing day. The various other features of the mobile electronic device include, but are not limited to, GPS (Global Positioning System), Camera, Audio/Video player, FM radio, Music player, heart-rate monitor, and short range wireless communication. Mobile devices can also connect to a network and can be uniquely identified using, for example, MAC (Media Access Control) address, IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Station Identity) number and/or operating system specific identifiers for a given mobile device. With an increase in on-device computational and storage capabilities, new electronic devices are capable of executing complex tasks. Nowadays, the mobile electronic devices are enabled typically with a plurality of applications. For example, smartphones along with enabling wireless communication also provide various other applications.
Hence, the use of mobile devices has increased significantly in day-to-day life because of the presence of the plurality of new applications, sometimes referred to as “apps”. Today, the mobile devices are also enabled with enhanced applications. For example, the mobile phones enable users to edit and modify audio/video data and multimedia data present in the mobile phones using audio/video applications. The users of electronic mobile devices today have multiple types of electronic communication addresses such as email address for email exchange, wireless phone number for SMS (Short Messaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), social media accounts all accessible on the mobile electronic device. The users can also create an event using existing calendar application and send that event invitation to other users.
However, one limitation of existing information sharing applications is that the sharing of information is limited to one electronic communication contact address type. So email application is required to contact a user using email address contact type, a messaging application is required to contact a user with phone number contact type et cetera. These limitations are apparent even more in existing calendar applications that allow users to send and share information related to a calendar event. Existing calendar applications have a limitation that the event invitation can be sent to other users using only their email address as the contact type. Whereas, electronic device users today have multiple contact types, for example, email address, phone number and user accounts for social media websites such as Facebook™ and Twitter™. Existing calendar applications do not allow users to send invitations simultaneously to multiple users from the contact list using heterogeneous contact types, for example, email address, phone number and Facebook™ account. Furthermore, existing calendar applications do not intelligently customize the invitation message and the method of communication based on the contact type. For example, invitation message cannot automatically be delivered using email for the invitees with contact type of an email address, using SMS (Short Message Service) for the invitees with a contact type of phone number and using instant message service for the invitees with a Facebook™ account contact type et cetera.
Another limitation of exiting calendar applications is that they do not provide any mechanism to establish a secure and private communication link among the users associated with an event, for example, sending and receiving event invitations and event responses, updating event information and sharing instant messages within the context of a given event. Any replies and updates sent by event host and invitees are sent as email or in some limited cases as SMS messages to other parties of the event. Where the receiving party has to manually open the email or SMS to check for the updates. This process creates the possibility of some invitees and/or host ignoring some important updates related to the calendar event.
Still another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they require the event host to know the contact information of the invitees beforehand to send an invitation for the event. Therefore, users of existing calendar applications on mobile device cannot create an open event or appointment where another user can join the calendar event without the host knowing the contact information of such user beforehand. Further, existing calendar applications do not provide a mechanism to set and verify the conditions for credentials or attributes of other users allowed to join an open event, for example, only users belonging to a specific graduation year from an educational institute, only users residing in a community et cetera.
Another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they rely on sending email messages with attachments if the user wants to share a file such as a document, video, voice, picture and/or other types of data with other guests of the event. However, if the host later wants to share an updated version of the file or another type of data itself, then another event update email is sent to the guests. So guests receive two emails with two different attachments for the same event. This method of information sharing is not optimal in mobile device environment where data transfer over the network is expensive and limited in bandwidth. So for example, if a host user sent an invitation with a video message attached in the invitation email then the host user cannot directly modify that video message at a later time. If the user wants invitees to see a newer video message for the event invitation, then the user will have to send another invitation email with the new video message to all the invitees. So, in this case invitees will receive two emails from the user with two different video messages. Thus invitee users have to manually decide as to which video message should be treated as the most up to date video message from the host user. And invitees' manual decision-making process might dependent on the order in which they received email updates from the calendar user. The order of email delivery may not always be guaranteed to be the same for all invitees due to varying network speeds and latency of email service itself.
Still another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they do not provide any mechanism for the users to directly control how much and what information related to a calendar event is displayed to the other user associated with an event. For example, if a user wants only some guests to see the video message and other guests to not see the video message then current calendar applications do not provide any such control mechanism for the files attached to a calendar event.
Still another limitation of the existing calendar applications in mobile devices is that they require user to know the exact address of the event location. Existing calendar applications do not provide any functionality to the user to search for event address based on a text search criterion, for example, searching for “Restaurant”, “Pub”, “Bar”, “Coffee shop” et cetera. So a user has to first search for such places using a mapping application on the mobile device or through another mechanism, find the address and then enter that address in the event location field of the calendar application of the mobile device.
Still another limitation of the existing calendar applications in mobile devices is that there is no provision for a user to update the event information remotely for other users in such manner as to minimize the network traffic. So for example, if the host user changes the location of the event then event information at the guest should update only the event location. However, existing calendar applications require the host to send a new email message to all guests with the updated event information that requires guests to download all the information related to the event again.
Hence there exists a need in the art for a method and system that efficiently and effectively manages the sharing, synchronization and control of shared information within a context among mobile device users who may have multiple contact addresses capable of electronic communication. Furthermore, there exists a need in the art for a method and system that manages sharing, synchronization and control of shared information specifically within the context of planning a calendar event; automatically keeps event information synchronized for all participants and allows event participants to have a direct communication link to exchange data in the context of the calendar event on a mobile communication device.